It’s sort of arbitrary, but I always figured mid-2009 for the time when Carlos Ruiz turned it around at the (side of the) plate. Through games played on July 19th of that year, Ruiz had posted a .688 OPS, following a rough 2008 season (in which he nevertheless provided some choppy World Series heroics). That doesn’t sound too bad, I know, but this is 2009, when the league as a whole was still hitting baseballs.

Marlon Byrd was drafted when I was ten years old. At that time I was much more concerned with trying to get Jimmy Rex to trade me his first edition Gyarados card than I was with the Phillies 10th round draft pick. Honestly, most of what pre-teen Eric remembers about the first Marlon Byrd Phillies era was how great his name sounded coming out of Harry Kalas’ mouth. Byrd has had a really interesting career and I wanted to find out more about it, so I’ve done some digging. Let’s discuss how Byrd got here and why he is what he is and has been what he has been. Continue reading…